Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Last night the Thunder cruised to an easy moral victory against the Suns. They were up by 13 at the half, and held a 16-point advantage late in the third. It was enough for Berry Tramel to dub the game "Re-Opening night" and declare the NBA had finally returned to OKC. "Mark it down", he said. Yes, I'll be sure to go sharpie that into my Big Book of Meaningless Statements. It was almost as if they didn't implode down the stretch and lose their 12th straight game.

But who gives a shit really, as long as they learned a "valuable lesson". The Thunder is racking up life lessons like the 7th graders at Degrassi Junior High. They had finally returned to their glory days of getting beat by less-than-totally-humiliating margins, and everyone was buzzing about positives and takeaways and improvement.

And then we played Cleveland.

Not even Darnell Mayberry dared spin this one in a positive light, calling it "a new low" for Thunder basketball. The Cavs started the game on a 13-0 run and lead 66-32 at halftime, their biggest halftime lead in franchise history. They eventually extended their lead to as many as 42 at in the second half, most of which was done by the Cavs' second and third units. The vaunted Thunder defense allowed the Cavs to shoot 60.8% from the floor while the 'Der shot an abysmal 35.4%, a season-low. But at least we got to watch Lebron, right? Yeah, for a career-low 17 minutes.

And none of that even rivaled the best moment of the night, which came during a halftime skit in which various fans said what they were thankful for this Thanksgiving. Here's Darnell's take from the Thunder live blog:

"First up was a kid who said I’m thankful for the opportunity to give LeBron James a high five. He proceeds to walk over to the Cavs huddle before being chased down by the Cavs mascot. The crowd boos for not letting the kid high five LeBron.

The next guy, an adult, says he’s thankful for the Cavalier Girls. The crowd cheers.

Then, a kid says, "I'm thankful I don't have to watch the Thunder every night."

I think that young man learned the true meaning of Thanksgiving tonight. Either that or he's pissed he finally gets to go to a Cavs game and LeBron only plays 17 minutes. Thanks, Thunder.

9 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Darnell's about to drop an article that will change the game. Book it.

Glad to see all the Cleveland fans in the area because when LeBron goes to NY in 2010, we all know Cleveland will want to move to a new market, Tulsa, where consumerism and fans leading the team to (moral) victory are both highly valued qualities.

May the Thunder continue on their path of missery. To see them atop the Draft bored every year. Bennets' squinched face as the Thunder are blown out night after night. Oh the joy that overcomes me knowing I won't have to watch the garbage being put on the floor by Sam "alakazam" Presti and Mr. Bennett up here in Seattle. Enjoy the NBA fellas.

Arvydas, just to correct you, the Thunder isn't very good, aren't would be appropriate if you were refering to any other team in the league (except Miami and Orlando, two other hard core bball cities).

Anonymous is half right, although it has nothing to do with whether the team's namesake is singular (Thunder, Heat, or Magic) or plural (Bulls, Lakers, or Spurs).

According to the AP Stylebook, "Nouns that denote a unit take singular verbs and pronouns." In other words, if you're referring to the team as a unit, treat it as a singular noun. But if you're referring to the team as several individuals, treat it as a plural noun.

For instance:

The Thunder isn't a very good team.

The Thunder aren't very good players.

The Celtics is a better team than the Thunder.

The Celtics are much happier to be in Boston than the Thunder are to be in Oklahoma City.

All of the above are correct.

This, of course, doesn't apply to Claymate's wife's paper. It isn't bound by the same pedestrian rules that govern the rest of us.

The Supes, er uhh err, I mean... Boomers cruised to yet another moral victory losing by 2 points. They managed to preserve their moral victory streak against an underated Timberwolves after a valiant fourth quarter comeback fromt the boys in smurf blue. Minnesota, you got smurfed.